The answer to today’s NYT Strands (#915) is HEROES. Friday’s puzzle, themed “To the rescue,” fills the board with five words that describe the qualities of someone brave enough to step in when others step back. The spangram runs horizontally.
NYT Strands Spangram – September 4, 2026
Today’s spangram is HEROES. It spans the board horizontally, touching both opposite sides as required, and frames the theme: the qualities that make a person willing to act when it matters most. The five theme words accompanying it are all synonyms for courage and fearlessness.
All Strands #915 Answers
| Word | Type |
|---|---|
| BRAVE | Theme word |
| FEARLESS | Theme word |
| INTREPID | Theme word |
| COURAGEOUS | Theme word |
| LIONHEARTED | Theme word |
| HEROES | Spangram ⭐ |
Strands #915 Hints – First Two Letters
If you want to work through the board before seeing full answers, here are the starting letters for each theme word:
| Starting Letters | Type |
|---|---|
| BR | Theme word |
| FE | Theme word |
| IN | Theme word |
| CO | Theme word |
| LI | Theme word |
| HE | Spangram (horizontal) |
About Today’s Theme: “To the Rescue”
All five theme words name the same quality from different angles. BRAVE and FEARLESS are the everyday synonyms – the words most players reach for first, and the ones most likely to fall early in a solve. INTREPID carries a formal edge; it implies action taken despite fear rather than in its absence, which makes it slightly harder to place without a clear letter anchor.
COURAGEOUS is the most commonly associated with acts of deliberate sacrifice or sustained endurance under pressure – the word that turns up in award citations and eulogies. LIONHEARTED is the puzzle’s outlier. An archaic term tracing back to Richard I of England – nicknamed Coeur de Lion, or Lion-Heart – it still carries the weight of that medieval image today. Most solvers will need a letter hint before it surfaces.
The spangram HEROES ties all five together. A hero is not defined by any single word on this board, but by all of them at once: brave enough to move, fearless enough to hold, intrepid enough to go first, courageous enough to carry through, and lionhearted enough to carry others.
Strands resets at midnight Eastern Time. Finding non-theme words earns hints – one for every three discovered. Each hint reveals the letter positions of a theme word.
For more September 4 puzzle answers, see today’s NYT Connections #1181 answers and the Wordle answer for September 4, 2026.
